The curse of Everton

What is it with Everton, the perpetual party poopers. Last year, on April 22nd, their shock come back from 4-2 away to Manchester United to draw 4-4 arguably cost Man Utd the title.

At the end of the season Alex Ferguson was quoted as saying “If I had to pick out one single match where we lost our title it would have to be that game”

This year they have done it again, this time to Manchester Utd’s noisy neighbors, Manchester City. Coming into the game on Saturday March 16th City trailed Utd by 12 points, and only a win would do. However, Everton were in no mood to hand over the points and comfortably beat the champions 2-0, a result, many believe will signal the end of Manchester City’s attempt to close the gap.

Everton and their manager David Moyeshave won five of the past seven Premier League matches against Manchester City since Italian manger Roberto Mancini took over in December 2009. This means that Mancini has lost more times to Moyes than to any other manager in the league. One can only guess that Moyes has a point to prove, and prove it he does extremely well.

With a squad costing a fraction of what City’s cost to assemble, the man of the match was Everton’s Seamus Coleman. He cost $90,000 from Sligo Rovers and set about stifling (with huge success) the $200m worth of midfield and striking talent that Man City threw up against him.

Mancini is determined to cut the point’s deficit ahead of next month’s derby against Manchester United, but with a result like this, the championship may already be well and truly over.

With Mancini too angry to talk to the press after the game, the post-match interview was left to Cities assistant manager, David Platt. When Platt was asked what the manager was so angry about, he calmly replied “everything in general”.

As for Everton, the result cemented their status as the team nobody likes to play – especially if its springtime and you are in contention for the title.